


Criminal Shine

by Garchomp445



Category: Sleepless Domain (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26660140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: Sally has committed a most egregious crime and Tessa is determined to bring her to justice. Unfortunately, Tessa is a little unclear on exactly what the crime was.
Relationships: Sally Fintan | Alchemical Fire/Undine Wells | Alchemical Water
Kudos: 10





	Criminal Shine

**Author's Note:**

> i swear i'll eventually write a serious SD fic. but not today

Sylvia turned on a very bright lamp with a single flick of a switch.

“Agh!” Sally shouted and covered her eyes. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?! First you drag me around in the dark, and now you’re trying to burn my eyes out?”

“It’s a reasonable precaution. We can’t risk you tampering with evidence.”

“You wouldn’t be the type to lie during an interrogation, would you?” Tessa looked down her nose at Sally. She shrank into her chair, “Also! Gwen, please take your seat over here.”

Gwen groaned and crawled over to the third chair. She slumped onto it and immediately face-planted onto the table with a loud thump. Sylvia rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, where were you and Undine earlier tonight?”

“Undine?” Sally glanced around. Sitting right next to her, Undine gave her a small wave and a kind smile. The most encouraging thing she had seen all night. Sally smiled back.

Syvia gasped, “See! That was a blush! Sally blushed!”

“I did not! You just got confused by my pink hair!”

“Both of you, shush! We’re going to do this by the book.” Tessa pounded the table, and Sally immediately interrupted,

“Which book?”

“The metaphorical book! You know lawyers don’t really have a book that they use.”

Sylvia glanced at Tessa. Gwen raised her head a little.

“Tessa, I hate to correct you, but those do exist. You’ve probably seen them in the library before.”

Gwen spoke with her face still pressed to the table, which made it a bit hard to hear, “We pass by them. Every day.”

Tessa glared at her. “Well, we don’t have a book right now, so it’s a metaphorical book for us. Got it?”

“Mhm.”

“The first question, if you would, Tessa?”

“It would be my pleasure.” She steepled her fingers as if Sally hadn’t watched her screech for no reason several seconds ago, “Undine. Where were you at approximately 9:45 tonight?”

“I think I was still helping you get the sleeping bags out of storage.”

Tessa nodded, “Yes, I remember that. Thank you for your testimony. Sally, could you answer the same question?”

“No.” Sally crossed her arms.

Tessa let out a short huff. Her eye twitched.

“I don’t keep track of time! Sue me!”

“Wish I could.”

“Oh yeah? You can’t even remember that lawbooks exist and now you want to sue me?”

“Come over here and we’ll have a less civil discussion-” Sylvia clapped loudly.

“Okay! Let’s rephrase the question. What were you doing a few minutes after we ate snacks?”

“Oh, that’s easy, I was throwing marshmallows into Gwen’s mouth. She caught like, eight of them.” Sally smiled, “It was really impressive, you should’ve been there.”

Gwen gave a thumbs-up.

“And then what, did you just sit in the kitchen doing that until you got bored?”

“Yeah? You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Tessa looked to Sylvia for support. Sylvia just shook her head.

“Okay! Moving on.” Tessa put on a more decent face, “Undine, where were you at ten?”

“Well, I didn’t leave the storage room until just thirty minutes ago, so I was probably still there.”

“Hm. No alibi at all? What were you doing in there?”

“I was looking through some of your comic books.”

Sylvia turned the lamp so it was facing right into Sally’s eyes, “Sally, same question for you. Where were you at ten?”

Sally covered her eyes, “Come on! Rude. Uh, I was… in the bathroom.”

“Wrong.” Tessa smirked, “The door was shut and the light was off. I was still arranging the sleeping bags.”

“The upstairs bathroom, then!”

“My parents were upstairs and you don’t like talking to them.”

Sally groaned, “Uh…”

“Come on, just admit it!”

“Tessa. If you already know the answer, what’s the point of this interrogation?”

“Fine, the second question then: What were you doing in the storage room!”

“I was just walking through.”

Tessa scraped her hands against the table, “It doesn’t go anywhere! There’s only,” She pointed at it, “The one door!”

Sylvia smiled, “Undine, you were in the storage room at that time, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you recall what Sally was doing at that time?”

“I do.” Sally covered her face and glanced at Undine. She looked perfectly calm. Nearly angelic in the shadow beyond the lamplight. Sally’s forehead wrinkled. “We were discussing the comic books that I found.”

Sally let out a sigh of relief. Of course Undine wouldn’t just say what had happened between them. She could always trust her. Across the table, Tessa and Sylvia looked like they were ready to rip their hair out. Sally stammered,

“Yeah! That’s all we did! Just discussed some comic books!”

“You. Are so bad. At lying!”

“Why are we even debating this in the first place! What does it matter?!”

“You don’t remember? In 5th grade we promised each other that we’d wait until we’re all fifteen to start dating. We’re only twelve, so you two are jumping the gun by three years!”

“Well, good thing we didn’t do anything then! Undine just held me for a while.” Sally stared into the floor, “Not that I needed it, the storage room just didn’t have a lot of space and it was the easiest way for us to look at the comics together because Undine’s taller than me.” By the end Sally was practically tying her hair in knots.

Tessa fumed, “You two are the SAME HEIGHT.”

Sylvia was sitting back in her chair, a tiny smile on her lips.

“At least tell me that you didn’t kiss.”

Undine stated, “Sally did not kiss me.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember us kissing.”

“Oh, really?”

Sylvia tapped her on the shoulder, “Sally’s much more obvious when she’s lying.”

“Right. I believe you, but if I see you ‘holding hands’ in ‘public’ then-”

“Then what?!” Sally leaned forwards, “You’ll beat us up? You’re going to raise a hand to sweet, wonderful Undine?”

“No, but I might raise one to you!” Tessa slammed the table again. Sally was fed up. She tackled Tessa over the table, which careened to the floor. Gwen landed on the floor and quickly recovered, Sylvia just jumped out of the way before she got hit. Sally elbowed Tessa in the ribs, and Tessa responded by kneeing her in the chin. Sally bit her knee and Tessa squealed.

Gwen started chanting, “Fight! Fight!” and Undine started whispering something to her.

Tessa kneed her in the face again, and her entire mouth hurt. Tessa got an arm around her neck, so Sally tried slamming her into the ground. Gwen unravelled Tessa’s arm and pulled her away. Just as Sally got up to sucker-punch her, Undine gently folded Sally’s arms in front of her and hugged her tight.

“Eleven o’ clock is a bit early to turn in, but I think we’re all a bit tired. How about we use those sleeping bags we set up?”

Tessa distangled herself from Gwen and marched towards the corner of the room.

“You know, Tessa, I don’t actually recall making that promise in fifth grade?”

“What?” Tessa spun on her heel and glared at Sylvia, “You just helped me interrogate Sally.”

“I was being an impartial observer. Gwen, do you remember that promise in fifth grade?”

Gwen shrugged, then shook her head.

Tessa’s eyes went wide, “Undine, please back me up here.”

The basement was illuminated only by the singular lamp, spilling light from its position on the floor. Tessa looked even more haggard in the darkness.

Undine sighed, “Sorry. It was a long time ago. It does sound like something we’d do.”

“Well, now I feel silly, biting you over nothing. Sorry about that, Tessa.”

Tessa deflated. She joined Gwen on the floor. “Yeah. I guess I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have kneed you in the face twice.”

“It’s fine. I would’ve done the same thing.”

Undine let go of Sally, and Sally immediately wanted to hug her again. It was a strange sensation. Did she think about this kind of stuff before Tessa blew up at her? Everyone really liked Undine, it wasn’t weird that Sally wanted to hug and cuddle with her. She liked cuddling with Gwen too. Yeah, Tessa definitely didn’t know what she was talking about.

Sally picked out a spot to lay down. Tessa was still pacing in the back, and Sylvia had disappeared into the bathroom. Gwen was already asleep, albeit on top of the sleeping bag instead of inside it. While she was scanning the room, Undine crept up behind her.

“Put your sleeping bag next to mine.” Undine whispered in her ear.

Sally settled in next to Undine, and her chest was filled with butterflies.

**Author's Note:**

> while i think they're a cute ship, i also encourage less romantic readings. partially because it's even sadder to think about what happened to undine's first crush, and partially because this has only the absolute *thinnest* canon support
> 
> thanks for reading, feel free to leave kudos and slash or comments!


End file.
